Former Macy’s Exec Will Lead J.C. Penney

J.C. Penney Co. named a former chairman and chief executive of both Macy’s and luxury retailer LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton to lead the department store company, replacing Allen Questrom.

Myron E. Ullman III will replace Questrom on Dec. 1, Penney said Wednesday.

Questrom, 64, had led a four-year turnaround effort that recently resulted in rising sales at the department store company. He had hinted he planned to leave when his five-year contract expired in September 2005, and four months ago the company hired a search firm to help look for a successor.

Questrom said in July that he would leave “when the board has a successor that they’re comfortable with.” Still, the timing of his departure came as a surprise.

Penney shares lost 4 cents, to $37.36, in trading on the New York Stock Exchange before the news. The shares were not trading in the after-hours session.

Questrom was chairman and CEO of Barneys New York when he took the top job at Penney in September 2000. At the time, Penney was losing sales to discounters and other rivals.

Questrom closed poorly performing stores, updated hundreds of others, overhauled the company’s purchasing system and sold the struggling Eckerd chain of drugstores for $4.5 billion. Last year Penney posted its first sales increase in years.

Ullman was chairman and CEO of R.H. Macy & Co. from 1992 to 1995. He joined Macy’s after it filed for bankruptcy protection and led it during a time of major organizational upheaval and its acquisition by Federated Department Stores Inc. in 1995.

After Macy’s, Ullman joined DFS Group Ltd., a chain of duty-free shops, as chairman and CEO from 1995 to 1997. Most recently he was an executive at LVMH.